Restitution (The Edge of Darkness, #3)

by Leigh Rivers

We aren’t together – haven’t been for a while – but Stacey is my girl. Mine.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re okay. You’re safe with me,” he says softly as he strokes my hair, letting me cry into his chest. “I found you, little one.”

“How did you escape?” I ask as I take the dress. “I’m mad at you for that, just so you know.” He scoffs as he turns round, letting me drop the blanket and pull on the dress. “You didn’t come for visitation, and I got bored.”

“You are also my priority. I would have always hunted for you to the ends of the fucking earth, little one.

“Tell me you’re okay, because we need to leave as soon as Barry gives us the go-ahead. Can you keep your emotions in check until we get out of here?” “You told me to let it all out.” The slight tilt of his head shows his confusion. “There’s more?” I huff out a laugh and wipe my eyes. “Sometimes I forget you’re an unfeeling idiot.”

If Stacey ever lets me hold her hand again, will she feel all the death I’ve caused?

My girl. Even when faced with the worst kind of horror, she fucking fought. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more than I already do, but I do.

He’s fucking insane. A ruthless killer when we’re working together, usually getting jobs done a lot faster than me, but then he’s a goofy prick that has heart eyes for my sister. He’s like the sun shining into a ditch full of dead bodies.

“If it makes you feel any better, I love someone who’s never once loved me back, and I’d still die for her. Your sister, by the way.” He sighs into the darkness. “And when I find her, because I will, I’m not going to let her out of my sight. She’ll love me one day. She has to. Even if she just fucking told me she liked me, it would be enough.”

“I’ll fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness the next time I see her.”

Stacey Rhodes. My girl. My anchor that sank to the bottom of the ocean without me.

I nearly drop to my fucking knees, staring at her little dimple and the freckles dusting her cheeks and nose. She’s truly a work of art. A masterpiece. And I’m proud to say that I was her first love.

You don’t have to ever forgive me, but I want you to know that if I had all the time in the world, I would spend it trying to win you back. I’d prove myself worthy of you, Stacey. Because there hasn’t been a day that’s passed where you haven’t kept me going. My love might not be enough for you, but it’s all I have left. I love you. I love you so fucking much that I want to live.”

“The first time I saw you, I was yours. I’ll always be yours, Freckles. Our girl will be proud of the woman you’ve become. You’ll both always be my girls.”

Barry crouches down to Cassie’s corpse and checks her pulse. “She’s dead.” Tobias frowns like a child just kicked his shin. “Of course she’s dead. Are your eyes working? Her brain is splattered on the ground, you fucking idiot.”

“I’ll leave your hearing, so I can tell you when I win her back, so you can hear her moaning my fucking name. When I marry her. When she births my fucking children. And guess what? I’ll have all of that. You won’t. Because Stacey Rhodes has been mine since the day I fucking met her.”

“Don’t be afraid of me, Freckles,” he calls, spitting out blood that’s leaked into his mouth. “This is for us.”

Under the skin of the devil they created, buried in the fucking void of the darkness he’s trapped in, I will find a glimmer of his humanity. Why? Because he’s mine.

“I’ll make it worth it, little one,” he whispers against my hair. “Just you watch. Heaven and hell will see the flames of their downfall.”

Being loved by Stacey Rhodes is a dream. Why does my dream need to be a nightmare?

I’m yours,” she says, and her eyes drop to my mouth. “And you’re mine.” “Yeah?” “Yeah.”

“Kiss me,” she whispers against my mouth, knowing how desperately I want to do just that. “It’s just me and you. It’s always been me and you. Against the world.”

“I want your heart, every single fucking fragment that I’ve broken over the years. I have your past and your present, and I want to be a selfish asshole and have your future.”

“What will you do with your freedom?” Kade stares at me for a long moment, breathing the same air while I touch him through his clothes. “Win my girl back.”

“I don’t understand.” She tilts her head, breathless and spasming as I pinch her nipples. “Understand what?” “With all the shit I’ve done, how I’m lucky enough to have you.”

She created me; the havoc that runs wild in my head, and I’ll unleash it all on her.

“Is my good girl going to take every drop of my cum? Are you going to swell up with my kid and give me everything we’ve ever wanted? I’m going to keep fucking you until we get our miracle. Every day, every night, I’ll be inside you. I want to see you fucking dripping, only so I can shove it back into you, my fingers deep inside your cunt.”

“You’re going to be my perfect little slut and suck it for the rest of your life. Do you know why?” She blinks, more trails of tears sliding down her cheeks. “Because you’re going to be my wife. You’ve already taken my heart, my body, and my butchered soul, so you’ll take my fucking last name too.”

“Did you get caught again?” “Yeah. A fucking armed officer and his lapdog were patrolling the pool house and I had to sit on my joint because I had nowhere to put it.” “Burn yourself?” “Yep. You want to put cream on my ass?”

He snorts out a loud laugh. “She looks like fucking Gollum in a wig.”

“Is Tobester cooking steak?” he asks, ruining the mood. I wince. “Please don’t call him that. He’ll chase you with an axe again.”

As soon as he opens the fridge and sees the melting head inside, he gags, slams the fridge door and runs out the room yelling that we’re all going to die. “He’s a little dramatic,” Dad says, shaking his head. “You need better friends.”

“I thought you were joking.” “I don’t joke,” my dad replies. “Surely you know this by now?”

“Bernadette is in the kitchen,” I say to him. “Come watch her eat Archie.” “Fuck,” he replies, spitting into the toilet bowl. “I have a strong stomach, but fuck.”

“You make me feel alive, Stacey. I’ve been dead for such a long fucking time.”

The devil trapped me, but I got myself out of her hold. She’s gone, and I’m fucking free.

Kade Mitchell and Stacey Rhodes – the fifteen-year-olds who met by the pool twenty years ago – finally get to have their forever.